Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

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from the swatting-doesn't-fly dept

This week, we had a post about the practice of “swatting” or making calls that get a SWAT team sent to someone’s house for no good reason. While we can pretty much all agree that this isn’t a smart thing to do, Socrates won most insightful comment of the week by pointing out where the lion’s share of your concern should be directed:

Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice:

“Swatting’ is a serious crime that endangers first responders and those in legitimate need of their help”

First and foremost it endangers innocent victims of the SWAT teams.

The reason it swatting is a thing at all, is because of excessive aggression from law enforcement.

Meanwhile this week, President Obama made some plainly absurd statements about the “conspiracy theorists” who criticize the TPP. Of course, a group of powerful people secretly negotiating a plan with far-reaching consequences for the world seems to be precisely the kind of thing we have the word “conspiracy” for, and That One Guy took second place for insightful by lamenting the fact that Obama can get away with saying such nonsense:

I know it would take someone willing to completely torpedo their career to do it, or at least any chance they’d have to ever cover politics again, but with an opening like that, surely someone would have been willing to take the dive and point out the absurdity of his statement.

Yeah, the vast majority of people don’t know what’s going on in the negotiations, or what’s in the ‘trade’ agreement, and that’s precisely because the public, and even most of the government, have been intentionally kept ignorant of those very things.

A statement like his, that’s little more than pure whining about the ‘mean ol’ public’, deserves nothing but derision, if he’s really got a problem with people assuming the worst about TTP and other ‘trade’ agreements, then he’s only got himself and the USTR to blame for it.

For editor’s choice on the insightful side, we start out with the White House’s admission that it keeps security holes open in order to catch pirates. An anonymous commenter summed this up to underline just how insane it is:

We would rather leave the Country we have an “Oath to Protect” openly vulnerable so we can catch one more person that might infringe on IP?

Next, we’ve got John Fenderson pointing out that even though it’s disappointing that the toughest interview Keith Alexander faced was conducted by a comedian, it shouldn’t really be surprising, because that’s what comedians are for:

This, by the way, has always been the role of the comedian in societies. It isn’t just to make people laugh. It’s to speak unpleasant truths in a way that gets people to understand them.

And speaking of comedians, now it’s time for the funny comments. Michael won both first and second place, with two consecutive comments on the same post about a kerfuffle over book-banning at a school. To be perfectly honest… I don’t think I really get either joke, or at least not fully, so I’ll present them without further analysis. First place is a response to a line from the book in question:

If God hadn’t wanted us to masturbate, then God wouldn’t have given us thumbs

Two thumbs up?

Second place, trailing by just a couple of votes, is a response to one of the complaints from concerned parents:

[A]n adult named Lonnie Stiles complained that the Alexie novel contains language “we do not speak in our home.”

Finally! Someone onboard with getting Spanish banned!

For editor’s choice on the funny side, we start out with the DHS Fusion Center’s attempts to spin photography as something legal and protected but simultaneously concerning and good enough reason to call law enforcement. Beta elegantly (or rather, inelegantly, as is appropriate) sums up the confused thinking behind this:

“…The manner in which he lures the officers in is concerning.”

He is luring us in, and this is very concerning, therefore we should approach him. It is a lure, in that there is really no reason for us to approach him, and yet he is causing us to approach him by acting in a way that gives us no reason to do so. If there really were a reason for us to approach him, then he would not be luring us. In that case he would be doing nothing wrong, but in fact he is doing nothing wrong; this is very concerning.

And finally, we’ve got an anonymous comment making the obvious but highly suitable joke about TISA, the latest hush-hush trade agreement on the block:

Oh come on, it’s almost too easy.

Trade In Secret Agreement.

That’s all for this week, folks!